Wheelchair type biomedical system with event-recorder function

Abstract

The present study is about a biometric system for a wheelchair, which can measure both bio-signal (ECG-Electrocardiogram, BCG-Ballistocardiogram) and kinetic signal (acceleration) simultaneously and send the data to a remote medical server. The equipment was developed with the object of building a system that measures the bio-signal and kinetic signal of a subject who is moving or at rest on a wheelchair and transmits the measured signals to a remote server through a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) network. The equipment is composed of body area network and remote medical server. The body area network was designed to obtain bio-signal and kinetic signal simultaneously and, on the occurrence of an event, to transmit data to a remote medical server through a CDMA network. The remote medical server was designed to display event data transmitted from the body area network in real time. The performance of the developed system was evaluated through two experiments. First, we measured battery life on the occurrence of events, and second, we tested whether biometric data are transmitted accurately to the remote server on the occurrence of an event. In the first experiment using the developed equipment, events were triggered 16 times and the battery worked stably for around 29 hours. In the second experiment, when an event took place, the corresponding data were transmitted accurately to the remote medical server through a CDMA network. This system is expected to be usable for the healthcare of those moving on a wheelchair and applicable to a mobile healthcare system.